Miami game is just another step for the Patriots

Saturday

Dec 1, 2012 at 8:24 PM

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — It is the Patriots’ method of operation to insist than no one game is more important than any other.

By PAUL KENYON

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — It is the Patriots’ method of operation to insist than no one game is more important than any other. There are exceptions, though, as Wes Welker points out about Sunday’s contest against the Dolphins at Sun Life Stadium.

There is a title on the line. A New England victory would mean the team’s ninth AFC East crown in the last 10 seasons. That means something for Welker.

“Absolutely,” he said. “It shows you how big of a game it is. It’s still early in the year, but this is a big game for us, one that we’ve really got to play well in, make sure we’re executing the way we need to.”

Taking another division title is not the target the Patriots have set for the season. But it is the first step. The Patriots have won five in a row and are playing better than they have all season. Co-captain Jerod Mayo feels there is no fear of overconfidence or overlooking the Dolphins with big games against Houston and San Francisco on the horizon.

“We’re just taking it one game at a time. This isn’t a gimme game by any means,” Mayo said. “All our focus is on the Dolphins.”

Miami is coming off perhaps its best win of the season, a victory over Seattle last Sunday, although the earlier wins included a 30-9 rout of the Jets. The Miami defense has been solid. It has allowed 226 points, 18 fewer than New England. But the Dolphins have not played any of the elite quarterbacks. The highest-rated quarterback the Dolphins have faced in Houston’s Matt Schaub, who is eighth. Schaub led the Texans to a 30-10 triumph over Miami in the season opener.

First-year Dolphins coach Joe Philbin was asked whether he felt it was better to blitz Brady — the Dolphins play an aggressive 3-4 and like to blitz often — or put more players in coverage.

“It’s kind of like pick your poison,” Philbin said. “I think we’re going to have to do some of both obviously. He’s not the most mobile quarterback that we face, for sure. That’s a bit a relief after the guy last week (Seattle’s Russell Wilson) to be honest with you, but he stands in there and he waits and he waits and he waits, and guys separate and get open.

“He’s very patient and he’s so smart. That’s the thing about him,” Philbin said. “I don’t think you can sit there and cover them all day long. Although, I do think you have to do things coverage wise that because of their personnel spreads you out all over the field, that you have to be able to be somewhat multiple in what you’re going to try to do covering their receivers.

“But I don’t think you can let him sit there and wait because eventually he finds somebody open,” Philbin continued. “We are a pressure team to a pretty high degree, and we’re not going to change what we do, but we’re going to have to be really smart in how we do it.”

The Patriots will be facing their third rookie quarterback of the season. Wilson beat New England, but the Pats got the best of Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck two weeks ago.

“He can make all the throws. He can also make a lot of plays with his legs,” linebacker Mayo said of Ryan Tannehill. “He was a wide receiver at his school (Texas A&M), so obviously he’s a good athlete. Right now, what are we, in Week 12? I don’t think there are any rookies left in the NFL.”

Pats coach Bill Belichick doesn’t like the rookie tag, either.

“I don’t think we really spend too much time talking about what year the quarterback is or any of that type of thing,” Belichick said. “We just look at the way he plays and what their scheme is and how they try to run their offense, and try to figure out what’s the best thing we can do to defend it.

“I think that’s a lot more the conversation and the focus than what year the guy is or anything like that. He’s obviously a very athletic player. They run a number of plays where they move the pocket with him,” he pointed out. “There are plays where they don’t move the pocket, but he of course has the skill to run and escape — different but similar to what we talked about with [Jake] Locker, going back to the Tennessee game, that kind of fast and athletic. A guy that played another position in college; I think that speaks to his athleticism.

“He’s shown a lot of poise throughout the whole season. With Coach [Mike] Sherman there (the Dolphins offensive coordinator and Tannehill’s coach in college), there is, I’m sure, good chemistry there and a good relationship and some carryover into what they’ve done in the past when he was with him at Texas A&M relative to reads.

“They’re certainly not afraid to put the ball in his hands in critical situations, and he’s done a good job of delivering for them. [He’s] done a good job with that team; he’s a good player,” Belichick said.

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